Your human rights

When parents don’t live together and can’t agree on:

• where their children should stay, or
• how much time they should spend with each parent,

they will go to the Family Court for a Child Welfare Hearing so someone can make a decision on what should happen. 

The person who makes this decision is known as a Sheriff. They will hear each parent’s view and ask questions if they need more information. But Sheriffs know that your views are equally important as the child or young person involved. Because of this, they may ask a Child Welfare Reporter to spend time with you to find out how they feel about what is happening.

Sometimes, the Sheriff will speak directly with you. This all helps Sheriffs take a child or young person’s views into account when they are making their decision.

Your rights

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the European Convention on Human Rights and laws in Scotland all make it clear that children and young people have the right to have contact with both parents, but only if it is safe and in their best interests for this to happen.

The UNCRC also says that children and young people have the right to have their views heard and taken into account when decisions are made about them. Article 12 specifically mentions the importance of this in decisions taken by courts.

There are ways you can help make sure the Sheriff hears your views. You can fill in an F9 form from the Court – your solicitor can give you a copy – or get a ‘Helping Hands’ form from the Scottish Child Law Centre—these are especially good for younger children. You can also write directly to the Sheriff. Even young children and those who have different ways of communicating can and should be helped by adults to do this.

What you can do

There are ways you can help make sure the Sheriff hears your views. You can fill in an F9 form from the Court – your solicitor can give you a copy – or get a ‘Helping Hands’ form from the Scottish Child Law Centre—these are especially good for younger children. You can also write directly to the Sheriff. Even young children and those who have different ways of communicating can and should be helped by adults to do this.

Children and young people can also have their own lawyers. Normally lawyers will act for children if they are 12 or older, but they will also represent younger children as long as they are able to understand what is happening.

If you would like more information you can contact either the Scottish Child Law Centre or ClanChildlaw who can give you advice and information.

Just like adults, children and young people have the right to have their information protected and their privacy respected. They also have the right to access information that organisations hold about them and to have it corrected when it isn’t accurate.

Your rights

Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is about the child’s right to privacy. It says that every child should:

• know that information is held about them,
• know why information about them is being held,
• know who controls any information about them,
• know who has access to the records of information about them, and
• be able to have inaccurate information about them deleted or corrected.

In the UK your information rights are also safeguarded by the Data Protection Act 2018. This Act says that you have the right to find out what information the government and other organisations store about you. These include the right to:

• be informed about how your data is being used,
• access personal data,
• have incorrect data updated,
• have data erased,
• stop or restrict the processing of your data,
• object to how your data is processed in certain circumstances, and
• data portability (allowing you to get and reuse your data for different services).

In the UK your information rights are also safeguarded by the Data Protection Act 2018. The Act says that you have the right to find out what information the government and other organisations store about you. These include the right to:

You also have rights when an organisation is using your personal data for:

• automated decision-making processes, which happen without human involvement, or
• profiling, so they can do something like predicting your behaviour or interests.

What you can do

If you think your school may have shared information about you when they shouldn’t have, you can ask the school to tell you what information they have shared, who they shared it with and why they shared it.

You could then ask the Information Commissioner’s Office in Scotland whether your personal information may have been shared incorrectly. If it has been, you can make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner’s advice line number is 0303 123 1113.

Families are important, especially relationships with your brothers and sisters— your siblings. We know these relationships are important for mental health and a sense of identity, so you should be able to contact your brother or sister unless for some reason it’s not in your best interests.

Your rights

Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which is about the child’s right to a family life, also talks about the importance of a child’s right to an identity. It recognises the importance of siblings, grandparents and other relatives to a child’s sense of identity.

The  United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (II B (17) also says that every effort should be made to enable siblings to maintain contact with each other, unless this is against their wishes or interests. 

And the European Court of Human Rights of Human Rights has confirmed family life can exist between siblings—reinforcing your European Convention on Human Rights right to family life.

What you can do

If you’ve been separated from your siblings because you are in care, you can tell your Children’s Hearing that you want to have contact with your sister.

Contact is something a Children’s Hearing must consider when they are making decisions, including trying to keep siblings together or at least have contact with each other.

You might find it helpful if you’re speaking to social workers or Children’s Panel members to have an advocacy worker to support you in getting your views across. You can find information about advocacy for looked after children on the Who Cares? Scotland website.

Local authorities should also consider your need for contact with your family – including siblings – as part of assessment and care planning. If they don’t do this, you can make a formal complaint about social work. You can find out how to do this on your council website by searching under the word ‘complaints’.

If you are not happy with the response to your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to review it.

Using the law

Although the UNCRC recognises the right to family life as including sibling relationships, Scots law does not make it easy for siblings to obtain orders enabling contact.

If you would like to have legal advice, the Scottish Child Law Centre and Clan Childlaw can give you this for free.

All planning applications have to be approved by the local council. If the proposal is likely to have a significant impact on the environment the developer will be asked to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA). Waste disposal sites may be asked to do this depending on where they are and how big they are.  

An EIA will be required if the development is going to produce toxic waste.

Your rights

Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) warns of the risks of environmental pollution, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has highlighted the damaging effects of environmental pollution and its impact on children’s rights, mentioning contamination of water supplies, sea pollution and air pollution.

Pollution is also mentioned as an obstacle to the child’s right to play in a safe environment in Article 31 of the UNCRC.

Article 12 – which is about children voices being heard in decisions that affect them – means that children and young people have the right to participate in decision-making processes. This includes planning consultations.

Local authorities should always make sure they are taking children and young people’s best interests into account when they make decisions that will affect them.

What you can do

Members of the public of all ages can write to the council to object to planning proposals. Concerns raised about the negative impact on the environment will be discussed by the Council’s planning committee at a meeting— and you can attend this and speak at it.

You can also write to your Councillor, your MP and your MSP. You could start a campaign or petition.

If planning permission has already been granted, sometimes a local authority can consider making a Revocation Order— effectively meaning that planning permission is taken away. But this has to be confirmed by Ministers in the Scottish Parliament, so orders like this aren’t issued very often.

You will find information about the plans and process for objections on your local council’s website. Planning Aid for Scotland also offers free advice and Citizens Advice can help, too.

Our office has been told many times about issues with school toilets— that they’re dirty, have no soap, hot water or handtowels, have no doors on cubicles and aren’t accessible outside of break times.

In 2013, we launched a campaign to improve school toilets and conducted research with children and young people.  As part of this, we called on the Scottish Government to publish new standards for toilets in schools in Scotland.  The Government consulted on the 1967 school premises regulations, but has not yet updated them.

Your rights

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that children and young people have the right to health and the right to privacy.

Because of this, school toilets should be safe, accessible and fit for purpose.

What you can do

You should discuss the problems about the toilets with your head teacher. If this doesn’t improve things, you could ask your parent council to get involved.

If this doesn’t help, you can make a formal complaint to your local education authority—you can find information about how to do this on your council’s website by searching under the word ‘complaints’.

If you are not happy with the local education authority’s response to your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to look at how your complaint was handled.

Using handcuffs on a child – or any other kind of physical force – should only happen when absolutely necessary, like to stop that child harming themselves or someone else.

It should also only happen as a last resort and for the shortest possible time.

Your rights

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) says that no child should be deprived of their liberty in a way that is against the law except under very specific circumstances. It says you must be treated with humanity and respect for your dignity in a way that takes into account your age and ability.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says in their General Comment 24 that a child can only be restrained when there is an immediate threat of injury to themselves or others and only when everything else has been tried.

What you can do

If you believe you have been illegally restrained you can make a complaint about your treatment to Police Scotland. If you’re not happy with the decision they make, you can ask the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner to look at your complaint again.

Although schools have rules about what you can and can’t wear to school, there isn’t any specific legislation about school uniform.  The uniform policy is set by either the individual school or the local education authority.

Rules about school uniform can be about more than just clothing, they can apply to anything that affects your appearance—like the wearing of jewellery or badges; in fact, anything that might affect the school’s image.

Your rights

Decisions by schools and education authorities should respect your rights to freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination.

However, there have been court decisions in English and Wales that found it may not be a breach of human rights to restrict the wearing of particular clothing or jewellery. That’s true even where it may be connected to a pupil’s religious beliefs.

As well as this, the European Court of Human Rights has decided that having to wear school uniform is not a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

However, school uniform rules shouldn’t have a disproportionate effect on any one gender, race or religion. An example of this is a recent court ruling which found that a ban on jewellery – which made it against the rules for a pupil to wear a Sikh bangle – was unlawful discrimination on the grounds of both race and religion.

What you can do

If you believe that your school’s uniform policy discriminates against you, having a discussion with the school is the first step.  You might ask them to do a Child Rights Impact Assessment of their policy.

If this doesn’t help, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service who give advice on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. They can let you know if it is possible that school rules may discriminate against you and what you can do about it if they do.

Sometimes the Commissioner hears about supermarkets or other shops stopping or restricting the entry of children and young people – particularly school pupils – at certain times of day.

Shops should not assume that children and young people will cause trouble, but they are not acting illegally imposing restrictions on them. Although the Equality Act 2010 protects individuals in the UK against discrimination by traders and service providers – this includes shops and supermarket chains – the part of the Equality Act that’s about age discrimination doesn’t apply if you are under 18.

Different conditions and restrictions can apply to children or different ages. This means that businesses can refuse to serve or admit children. An example of this is hotels that don’t allow children or shops that limit the number of children entering a shop or ban them altogether.

You can find information about free, independent advocacy services in your area from the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance.

Young people between the ages of 11 and 25 can get free, confidential advice on legal issues, 24 hours a day, from the Young Scot Law Line (tel. 0808 801 0801).

The Scottish Child Law Centre provides free legal advice, guidance and information about the law for and about children and young people.

Clan Childlaw provides free legal advice and representation for children and young people.

The Ethnic Minorities Law Centre provides legal advice and representation to individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Scotland.

You can find information about how to complain about public services on the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s website. 

If your complaint is about the NHS, NHS inform has a factsheet for children and young people about how to make complaints about NHS services.

The Patient Advice and Support Service offers information about NHS complaints procedures, independent advice and advocacy support.

Complaints about independent healthcare services (not NHS services) should be made to Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Govan Law Education Law Unit run a helpline giving information about education law in Scotland. They also provide representation in some education law legal cases.

You can find information and get advice about all aspects of additional support for learning from Enquire, who are the independent advice service for additional support for learning in Scotland.

Resolve: ASL is an independent mediation service which assists in resolving disputes about decisions regarding additional support for learning.

If you believe you may have been discriminated against the  Equality Advisory Support Service provides advice and assistance on equality and human rights legislation and how it may relate to you.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland gives advice about rights in relation to mental health care and treatment.

NHS Choices – Young People and Mental Health offers advice and information about a variety of mental health problems, as well as links to useful resources.

Breathing Space is a helpline staffed by trained advisors. They will listen and provide support and advice (tel. 0800 83 85 87).

You can find information and advice about personal information and data protection from the  Information Commissioner’s Office (Scotland).

WhoCares? Scotland helps ensure looked after and care experienced children and young people’s voices are heard, offering advocacy support across most local authority areas.

The LGBT Youth Scotland website has advice, information and resources for young people, parents and carers and professionals. There’s a chat line, too (tel. 0131 555 3940).

Shelter Scotland provide housing advice and information, including advice specifically for young people.

Contact provides support and advice for families with disabled children.

Kindred specialises in supporting families with complex needs. They operate a helpline and provide practical information, advocacy support and guidance, as well as a counselling service for parents whose children are in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh whether on an in-patient or an out-patient basis.

Scottish Women’s Aid offers confidential advice and information for both women and children and young people who are experiencing domestic abuse. Scottish Women’s Aid also has a Men’s Advice Line (tel. 0808 801 0327)

Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline is a 24-hour resource offering support to anyone experiencing domestic abuse as well as family members, friends, colleagues and professionals who support them (tel. 0800 027 1234).

If you wish to report a domestic abuse incident you can do so at your local police station or by using an online form. If the situation is urgent, telephone 101 and if it is an emergency, telephone 999. 

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection website has general information about online safety as well as information about how to make a report if you are a victim of online abuse or worried that it is happening to someone else.

The Thinkuknow website takes you straight to age-specific information for children and young people as well as information for parents/carers and those working with children and young people.

The Carers Trust provides information and advice and runs support schemes for young carers through local support schemes across Scotland.

Citizen’s Advice Bureau Scotland provides comprehensive information on their website and advice in their offices or on the free confidential Kinship Care helpline (tel. 0808 800 0006).

Children1st also operate a kinship care service and helpline (tel. 08000 28 22 33).

Citizen’s Advice Scotland are registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) to give advice and assistance.

The OISC website lists the Citizen’s Advice Scotland offices on their adviser finder webpages, along with other organisations and agencies (although some of these do charge fees).

You can filter the search by location, as well as the specific type of advice you are looking for and whether to include those who charge fees.

The Scottish Refugee Council also offers advice, information and support to refugees and asylum seekers across Scotland.

Legal advice

The Scottish Child Law Centre and Clan ChildLaw may both be able to offer you advice about children’s rights.

IAST

IAST is a specialist Edinburgh City Council service which assists and advises individuals who have immigration related and ‘no recourse to public funds’ issues.

This includes asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, foreign nationals who are victims of domestic violence, some EU nationals, visa overstayers, and other people subject to immigration control.

In addition, IAST undertakes transitional integration work with people who have been granted refugee status or other forms of Leave to Remain and responds to general inquiries about EU nationals. They can also assist with some applications to the Home Office.

Reunite International assist and advise both in cases of international abduction, but also help parents who fear their children may be abducted. The website also has a list of family lawyers who specialise in child abduction and an abduction prevention guide.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office also has information available online.

Respect Me has information and resources both for parents and for children and young people, including options for responding to bullying.

The Anti-bullying Network also has a useful interactive section for young people and advice and information for parents and families.

For information about the Children’s Panel – including specific information for both children and young people, have a look at the Children’s Hearings Scotland website.

You can also find information about hearings, resources for children and young people and information on the rights of children and young people attending Children’s Hearings, on the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration website.

Relationship Scotland and the Scottish Mediation Service both offer family mediation services. Relationship Scotland also operate contact centres across the country.

Parenting Across Scotland, Action for Children and Children1st all offer support services for families, as well as advice and support for parents and children online. Parenting Across Scotland also has a very useful directory of helplines.

Parent Club, supported by the Scottish Government, provides helpful information on children’s rights and how parents, carers and family members can be involved. You can read their case studies to see how the UNCRC can help children and parents deal with different situations.

One Parent Families Scotland focuses on advice and information for single parents.

Turn2Us gives information about benefits, grants and support services for families suffering financial hardship. 

You can find information about whether a care service is registered and how to complain on the Care Inspectorate website.

If you have a complaint about the police you can contact Police Scotland online, by post, by telephone, or in person at a police station. Information about how to make a complaint can be found here.

If your complaint is about a senior police officer you can make a complaint to the Scottish Police Authority.

If you are not happy with the response to a complaint, you can ask the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) to review the way your complaint was handled.